Presented by NON:op Arts & Humanities, Inventory of Lost Books is a collaborative public humanities project conceived by AMANDA LOVE and developed with composer and sound artist CHRISTOPHE PREISSING, video artist LIVIU PASARE, performers E’MON LAUREN, and KYLE GREGORY PRICE, and community participants. Combining visual art, sound, video, installation, and live performance, the project unfolds through four interconnected chapters exploring censorship, cultural memory, and the preservation of stories.

This August, NON:op presents Inventory of LOST BOOKS, Chapters 2 & 3 of the four-part project, at the Theatre Y Gallery in Chicago – two immersive installations that place visitors within an evolving environment shaped by censorship, bureaucracy, complicity, erasure, and collective memory. Books become evidence, witnesses, symbols, and absences, revealing the systems that determine which stories are preserved, questioned, or removed from public life.

Experienced in intimate groups during timed thirty-minute entries, the installations invite audiences not simply to observe, but to become participants in an act of witness and remembrance. Rather than prescribing answers, Inventory of Lost Books asks visitors to reflect on the fragile relationship between knowledge, power, and public memory—and on the role each of us plays in protecting the freedom to read.

Admission is FREE for everyone, and space is limited, so please, reserve your space now!